My View: A Symphony of Gratitude (Live Thanksgiving Week)

[APDMOM]

Hello from deck eleven on Symphony of the Seas!

 

We are about to sail away from Port Everglades, heading toward the Southern Caribbean.

 

For those who are new to my trip reports, I will be posting TIPS in red for the skim-readers.  
 

TIP:  If I can help find any information for you while I am onboard, please post your request. I will do my best to follow through on requests.

 

I will likely fall a day or two behind, depending on Wi-Fi and our busy schedule. However, I will try to keep the report as “live“ as possible. 

 

Gratitude:

 

Since this is a Thanksgiving cruise, it will be great to hear what you are thankful for, if you would like to share.

 

We are extra thankful to be on this trip today, as we had to cancel Odyssey of the Seas in January due to illness.  At that time, we could not with good conscience say “no” to a couple of the health questions due to our son having a cough and sore throat.  

 

This is the replacement cruise that we booked with the refund from that canceled cruise. 🙂💃🏼

 

Thankfully, we are all healthy this time, and look forward to a great week on Symphony of the Seas.

 

Our itinerary:

 

First view of “our ship”:

 

[Ocean Boy]

Have a great week!

[mafig]

Can't wait to read your trip report!

[APDMOM]

Arrival at a glance:

 

We had an assigned arrival time of 12:30 PM. We received several reminders to only show up at our assigned time. However, we also received an email saying that parking at the port is limited, and to show up accordingly. Therefore, we decided to take the chance to show up early to make sure we have a parking spot. We were willing to wait in the car if we were to be turned away.  
 

Thankfully, we were allowed to check in.  

 

Parked - 10:45 AM

Through security and checked in - 11:08

On deck 5 - 11:31

 

The whole boarding process was very smooth. They do not board according to loyalty level. The organization is excellent with boarding happening row for row in single file.  Of course, Suites and The Key board first.  Priority boarding was just finishing up when we arrived at the waiting area.

 

Let’s Cruise!! Art in the stairwell…

 

[APDMOM]

Park Cafe Lunch:

 

This is our favorite place for lunch on boarding day on this class ship. It was almost empty when we arrived, even though there were at least 300 people already on board.

 

TIP:  Park Cafe is a great place for lunch on boarding day, if you don’t mind the limited variety. It is getting a bit more popular, but we loved the relatively quiet lunch.  

There is nice seating in the back, and if you run out of chairs they have these stools you can move to your table.

 

There is also plenty of outdoor seating, but it was threatening to rain after we boarded.

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Time to get ready for dinner and sail away.  We also have a show booked tonight, so I will be back much later. 🙂⛴️ 
 

Happy Virtual Cruising!

[Nadey]

Have a great time on your cruise. I will be following along, and what you asked what we are thankful for. I am most thankful for my health for my family. 

[APDMOM]

In case you are watching the webcam… Sailaway is quite delayed - they are still loading luggage and pallets of supplies:

[Scoobydobe7]

Have fun, just got off her this morning.

Great ship, Great condition but please do not expect good dining unless you are doing "specialty".  My only disappointment..

[GetToLivin]

Absolutely love your subject line and POV of gratitude 😀 Looking forward to following!

[Sea Dog]

Have a great cruise! I will be following along.

[rorito]

Thanks for the live review! I am on the 12/2 sailing and was wondering if they are converting Jazz on 4 to the non-smoking casino. I noticed on the app that Jazz on 4 is not listed and the jazz band is scheduled in Dazzles. I think Symphony is the only Oasis class ship that still had the jazz club. I watched the port webcam and sunset looked awesome! 

[APDMOM]

Dinner Day 1 - MDR

 

We were supposed to eat in the Solarium Bistro, as we had made reservations quite a while ago.  The reservation disappeared this afternoon.  We assume it is because we had reservations for 5:30 PM, and the app showed that they do not open until 6 PM.  We decided to just eat in the MDR, since our previous cruise on Royal Caribbean was in 2019 (Harmony).

 

Dinner was definitely different from our prior experiences.  The serving portions were much smaller than before - perfect for me, but small for the two men in my life.

 

TIP: Since these portions are what I would consider “ladies’ portions”, you may want to consider ordering two main courses, or head up to the Windjammer/Sorrento's/Promenade for more.  

 

Our selections:

I LOVED the soup.  I could have eaten that as a main course!  The artichoke dip was also very good.  The main courses were good enough, but we agreed that none of them were what we call “repeaters” ( that we would order again).

 

The cheesecake and Key Lime Pie were very good - also small, which I appreciate.  Again - probably too small for most.

 

Grateful that we tried the MDR the first night so that we now know we don’t miss too much if we decide to go to Solarium Bistro.  🙂

 

Next time, I should just get a large bowl of soup for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

1 minute ago, rorito said:

Thanks for the live review! I am on the 12/2 sailing and was wondering if they are converting Jazz on 4 to the non-smoking casino. I noticed on the app that Jazz on 4 is not listed and the jazz band is scheduled in Dazzles. I think Symphony is the only Oasis class ship that still had the jazz club. I watched the port webcam and sunset looked awesome! 

I will look into that… 🙂

[SeaHunt]

Thanks for doing this review and have a wonderful cruise! I caught a screen grab of the Symphony leaving on the port cam tonight. She's a beauty:

 

[cruisin73]

We’ll be on Symphony on December 2 appreciate your review.  Thanks for taking the time to do this.  

[APDMOM]

Tonight's Entertainment: Flight... Dare to Dream - EXCELLENT!

 

This show is not to miss.  Almost a 10!  Just a couple of songs in the second half were a bit 'off'.  Overall, it was something you can't describe in words. You have to experience it.  From the ISS to aliens to sky-diving to 'girl power world war' to a bit of comedy - the show had it all!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

2 hours ago, rorito said:

Thanks for the live review! I am on the 12/2 sailing and was wondering if they are converting Jazz on 4 to the non-smoking casino. I noticed on the app that Jazz on 4 is not listed and the jazz band is scheduled in Dazzles. I think Symphony is the only Oasis class ship that still had the jazz club. I watched the port webcam and sunset looked awesome! 

I think you are right.  That area is blocked off and it has a "Casino Royale" sign on the outside.  I will see if I can get more info tomorrow from the concierge. 

[h20skibum]

Following along.  We board in four weeks for this same itinerary.  
 

Are you getting paper cruise compasses?   Curious if this tip I received works for Symphony.  
 

Once onboard & connected to the ship wifi, use this link…

 

https://minio.rccl.com/compass/cruisecompass.pdf

 

That should give you the daily Cruise Compass in PDF form and you can save them.

[FionaMG]

Thanks for doing this review. We are sailing in February so I'll be following with interest.

I'm curious about the itinerary you posted, which is the exact same as ours, because the app shows your ports as being in a different order. Did yours get changed at some point?

 

Have a great time. 😊

[Kat97]

Have a great time. Will be on her dec 2

[bonsai3s]

2 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Thanks for doing this review. We are sailing in February so I'll be following with interest.

I'm curious about the itinerary you posted, which is the exact same as ours, because the app shows your ports as being in a different order. Did yours get changed at some point?

 

Have a great time. 😊

Grateful to still be onboard the Symphony. 

[bonsai3s]

11 hours ago, APDMOM said:

I will look into that… 🙂

APDMOM...genuinely grateful to be onboard with you.

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, bonsai3s said:

Grateful to still be onboard the Symphony. 

 

Keep having a great trip! I'm looking forward to the day when we have sufficient availability to do long b2b cruises like you do. 😊

[LuCruise]

APDMOM, excited to see you on here.   Love  your reviews, and Symphony is an amazing ship I'm sure you will enjoy!